Chapter 35

Late that morning, as Rian stepped into the lecture hall, his friends greeted him warmly.

“Rian! We had such a great time yesterday,” Yoon-seok called out. “Make sure to tell your hyung-nim thank you once again for us.”

Yoon-seok threw an arm around Rian’s shoulders with a grin. Fortunately, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the meal yesterday, which put Rian’s mind at ease.

“Your hyung’s cooking is seriously incredible,” Su-hyun chimed in. “If he doesn’t mind, we’d love to buy him drinks next time. What do you think, Rian?”

At Su-hyun’s suggestion, Rian gave a shy nod.

“I’ll ask Hyung,” Rian replied. “I’m just glad you guys had fun. It was my first time having friends over.”

A flicker of excitement lit up Rian’s face.

“That’s surprising,” Yoon-seok remarked. “You seem like you’d have tons of friends, Rian.”

“Right?” Su-hyun agreed.

His friends pressed him as though finding it hard to believe. Not only was it unexpected that Kwon Rian—blessed with such a pretty face and gentle disposition—hadn’t made many friends, but the fact that he had reached this age without ever inviting friends over was equally surprising.

“Was your family pretty strict growing up?” Su-hyun asked.

Taken aback by the abrupt transition, Rian stammered, “Huh?”

Su-hyun’s probing question caught Rian completely off guard, leaving him momentarily flustered.

“Come to think of it, you live alone with your hyung, right?” Yoon-seok piped up. “I’m so jealous. You must’ve moved out super early. Is it because your hyung is quite a bit older?”

Yoon-seok chattered on without a second thought. Rian seemed to be the only one rattled by their casual remarks. With plenty of peers renting their own studios or living in dorms, it was an innocuous topic he could have brushed off without thinking, yet an odd tension seized him.

The fact that he had never revealed to his friends that his parents had passed away when he was young returned as a nagging prickle of unease.

Should I just tell them the truth? Just as Rian parted his lips to speak, Kim Taeju strolled into the lecture hall.

With Taeju’s arrival, the friends’ attention immediately shifted toward him. Rian quietly clamped his mouth shut. Kim Taeju strode through the lecture hall and took a seat right beside them.

“Late today, Taeju?” Yoon-seok greeted him.

“Yeah, overslept,” Taeju replied nonchalantly.

After giving that indifferent reply to Yoon-seok, Taeju settled into the seat right behind Rian. Rian, who had glanced backward, subtly shifted his posture to face straight ahead.

Kim Taeju glanced at Rian’s profile, his brow furrowing slightly. The memory of practically being chased out of that house yesterday still rankled with sour resentment. Rian felt just as uncomfortable, deliberately avoiding Taeju’s gaze.

Taeju’s gaze grew relentless as it bored into Rian, who could not even bring himself to meet his eyes.

Kwon Rian was so terrible at concealing his feelings that his small face practically broadcasted, I’m uncomfortable. On top of that, from the moment Taeju stepped into the classroom, the scent of Kwon Rian’s pheromones teasing the tip of his nose felt exceptionally pungent. Did Kwon Rian have zero interest in keeping his pheromones under control? Other Alphas would certainly catch Rian’s scent, though it seemed he usually managed to mask it with suppressants or perfume.

Even so, the fact that it struck Taeju as such an intense provocation suggested that his own constitution was exceptionally responsive to Rian’s pheromones.

Still, leaking his scent defenselessly or failing to rein it in was entirely Rian’s fault. Luckily, Alphas were rare at this university; had Rian been tossed into a den of Alphas, he would have been devoured in an instant.

As those thoughts spiraled, an unbidden heat hardened Taeju’s cock. He wondered if that was precisely why that damn hyung policed Rian with such obsessive vigilance.

The fleeting memory of yesterday’s friction with Kwon Rian’s hyung, Yu-gyeom, made Kim Taeju’s stomach churn with sour irritation. That was why seeing Kwon Rian clamp his mouth shut and sit like a mute doll the moment Taeju arrived grated on his nerves. He despised Rian’s clueless, harmless facade.

Su-hyun nudged him with an elbow. “Taeju, why did you leave without saying a word yesterday?”

It was Su-hyun who brought it up first. Yoon-seok had also found it strange that a guy who said he was merely stepping out to the bathroom had vanished without even saying goodbye.

“Seriously, man! Leaving without even saying goodbye?” Yoon-seok teased with a laugh. “Were you totally wasted or something?”

Yoon-seok snickered. At that, Kim Taeju let out a derisive scoff.

“Crazy bastard, you think I’d get drunk off that little?” Taeju scoffed.

“Right? You vanished out of nowhere and caught us off guard, you punk,” Yoon-seok said. “Hyung-nim Yu-gyeom was so much fun. The vibe was even better after you left.”

“Really? I’m sure it was just fucking fantastic,” Taeju sneered.

Naturally, his words carried a venomous edge. Spurred by some spiteful impulse, Kim Taeju stared even more brazenly at Kwon Rian.

“Kwon Rian probably knows better than anyone why I left early yesterday,” Taeju provoked.

The barb flew straight at Rian. At Taeju’s words, the other two friends instantly fixed their curious gazes upon Rian.

“Huh?” Rian stammered.

Rian’s face flushed scarlet all the way to the tips of his ears. The memory of Taeju cornering and groping him in the bathroom yesterday flashed into his mind. Taeju was the one who had instigated everything, yet now he was framing it as though he had been forced to leave on Rian’s account, leaving Rian utterly mortified.

“What crap are you spewing, you asshole?” Yoon-seok chortled. “It’s not like Rian told you to get lost~”

Yoon-seok’s thoughtless quip acted like a flare gun, goading Taeju’s temper.

“Not Rian, but his brother told me to get the fuck out,” Taeju countered flatly.

“Huh?” Yoon-seok blurted out, gaping in disbelief.

“Yu-gyeom-hyung did?” Su-hyun asked in shock.

Yoon-seok and Su-hyun demanded an explanation in unison. Kwon Rian could not utter a word, his pupils darting about in acute distress. Calling Taeju out right here by pointing out that Taeju had been the one groping him in the bathroom first was out of the question.

Rian feared that exposing the incident would only drag both of them into an unbearable scandal.

“Yeah, Kwon Rian’s hyung saw Rian and me coming out of the bathroom together and told me to get the fuck out,” Taeju stated with total nonchalance.

As he said this, Taeju wore a leisurely smirk. While it was a situation that would normally infuriate anyone, he appeared entirely unbothered. All the while, the gaze he leveled at Rian was disturbingly intense.

With his brother’s name repeatedly dragged through Kim Taeju’s mouth, Rian realized he could no longer keep silent.

“Ah, well… You see…” Rian stammered.

“We were just washing our hands together in the bathroom, but the second he saw us walk out side by side, he blew his lid,” Taeju cut in smoothly.

Kim Taeju brazenly spouted fabricated lies. Rian knitted his brow, glaring at Taeju in disbelief.

“Am I wrong? I’m right, aren’t I? Why are you looking at me like that?” Taeju challenged. “Anyone watching would think you and I actually did something dirty in there.”

Taeju sneered without an ounce of remorse. As if anticipating whatever Kwon Rian might say, he had ruthlessly cut Rian off. Having no clue what Taeju was playing at, Rian was the one stranded in utter mortification.

Rian had no desire to argue any further, but he refused to let his brother be painted as an unstable creep on his account.

“My hyung… I think he just misunderstood Taeju,” Rian offered awkwardly. “He must’ve overheard Taeju and me bickering a little inside.”

“Bullshit,” Taeju scoffed.

Kim Taeju scoffed at Rian’s explanation, but Yoon-seok and Su-hyun both blinked in utter astonishment.

“Why? Did you guys fight?!” Yoon-seok blurted out.

“That’s such a bizarre matchup,” Su-hyun remarked. “This lunatic versus you, Rian? How could you two even be opponents?”

Su-hyun tilted his head in bewilderment.

“Anyway, that hyung pissed me off, so I left,” Taeju said. “But didn’t you guys pick up on it?”

“What?” Yoon-seok asked.

“Kwon Rian’s hyung. He’s pretty creepy, isn’t he?” Taeju sneered.

“…What?” Su-hyun breathed, stunned.

He had crossed the line. At Taeju’s sudden disparagement of their friend’s older brother, the atmosphere turned icy cold. While Kim Taeju was normally selfish and possessed an erratic, reckless streak, he was never one to shoot his mouth off or spout reckless insults. Hurling unprovoked slander at a friend’s family was entirely beyond comprehension.

Gauging Rian’s reaction, Yoon-seok jabbed Taeju in the ribs with his elbow.

“Hey… what the hell are you even saying right now?” Yoon-seok hissed under his breath.

Su-hyun studied Rian’s expression. He could also see that Kim Taeju’s gaze remained locked persistently onto Rian. He laughed, waving a hand. “What’s with this vibe? I only said it because his brother acts ridiculously overprotective of Kwon Rian. Why are you bastards taking it so seriously?”

Taeju chuckled as if attempting to diffuse the frigid mood. Only then did Yoon-seok and Su-hyun manage awkward chuckles, keeping their eyes trained on Rian’s reaction. Rian could no longer stomach Kim Taeju’s brazen insolence. Yet causing a scene and picking an open fight here was entirely out of the question.

“I’m… going to the restroom,” Rian said, pushing back his chair.

In the end, there was nothing Rian could do except flee the scene.

It was true that Yu-gyeom had kicked Kim Taeju out yesterday, and Rian could understand why Taeju might have felt slighted. Yet whenever anyone gossiped about Yu-gyeom behind his back, Rian rarely knew how to defend him.

Though they were not blood brothers, Yu-gyeom, whom Rian had lived with like family, was an existence that felt entirely natural yet profoundly unnatural all at once.

Stepping into the restroom, Rian splashed cold water over his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Should I just tell my friends? That Yu-gyeom hyung isn’t real family… No, we’re like family, but we… I mean, we have sex? But so what?

Is that not allowed? Couldn’t people do that? But…

Rian touched his own flushed neck, murmuring to himself, “Something feels wrong.”

Could he really speak of that openly in front of his friends? No, yet he wasn’t sure if keeping it hidden was right either.

If he simply claimed they were unrelated strangers, what did it matter what went on between Yu-gyeom and him? Yet Yu-gyeom had strictly forbidden him, ordering him to hide their relationship from everyone.

Rian felt deeply conflicted. Since they were unrelated anyway, why did Yu-gyeom insist on hiding their connection from everyone? Rian simply wanted to boast about him. Yet what would I even boast about…?

That my hyung washes my body? That every time my hyung rams his cock into my pussy, I leak and squirt all over? …That my hyung took in an orphaned child and raised me all this time?

And yet I have sex with a hyung who is like family? I mean… sex.

Are there brothers out there who have sex with each other?

Rian’s mind tangled into an impossible knot. Different blood undoubtedly flowed through Yu-gyeom and his veins, yet they had lived as family for far too long. The far greater problem was that even at this very moment, entertaining such shameful thoughts, Rian’s groin was growing slick and wet.